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Immigrants, Illness, and Narrative Medicine, University of Southern California (Keck)
This course examines immigrant experiences in the United States through the lens of narrative medicine, a field that emerges from the intersection of the humanities, literature and literary theory, and the study and practice of medicine. Through the study of immigration literature (novels, poetry, memoirs, etc.), complemented by history and social science texts, this course aims not only to deepen students’ understanding of critical issues affecting immigrants in the United States, but also to develop the skills that will help them “recognize, absorb, interpret, and be moved to action by the stories of others,”1 thus enabling them to better serve immigrant communities and populations within the arena of healthcare and other social services. While in-class activities will focus on honing the skills necessary to gain narrative competence through close and careful examination of texts, and through the practice of narrative and reflective writing, the course also encourages experiential learning where students engage with immigrant-serving organizations in Los Angeles.
1 Rita Charon, Sayantani DasGupta, Nellie Herman, et al., The Principles and Practice of Narrative Medicine (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
This course forms part of a graduate master's program offered through the medical school. Almost all of the students who enrolled intended to go on to further graduate training in a health profession (medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, etc.).
This information has been collected for the Post-Discipline Online Syllabus Database. The database explores the use of literature by schools of professional education in North America. It forms part of a larger project titled Post-Discipline: Literature, Professionalism, and the Crisis of the Humanities, led by Dr Merve Emre with the assistance of Dr Hayley G. Toth. You can find more information about the project at https://postdiscipline.english.ox.ac.uk/. Data was collected and accurate in 2021/22.
